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Pugliese Revisited

Pugliese Revisited

Way back when, Sylvia posted a pugliese with a lighter than air crumb. I baked it once and loved it, then forgot about it. Browsing through old bread pictures the other day I came upon a photograph of my old pugliese, and decided to try it again. However, I couldn't leave well enough alone and follow the recipe. Instead, I tweaked it just a little.

The original formula calls for poolish, and yet, there was ripe starter sitting on the counter with no label other than discard. Should I discard it or did it have a place in this little pugliese? The problem with using starter for a bread like this is that it takes up too much of the flavor room and masks the delicate taste of the durum. A baking error one might say. Not wanting to fall into this trap, I decided to use some of the starter, but handle it very carefully to keep the flavor nice and balanced.

I fed the starter with some fresh flour and let it ferment for just long enough for it to start expanding, but not long enough to build up a heady aroma. At that point, I mixed everything up, and proceeded as directed.

This dough was very wet and somewhat difficult to handle. I developed the dough by mixing at speed 1, 2, 3, 4 (!) in my Bosch Compact for a total of 6 minutes. By the end, it had cleared the bowl but was very wet and sticky, and spread out again as soon as I let it rest. I did stretch and fold in the bowl twice at half hour intervals, and for the third S&F after 30 more minutes, got my hands very wet and picked the dough up and suspended it and rotated it.

I "shaped" the dough into a boule, which is similar to saying that one shaped a water balloon - more like a little prod here and a poke there, dusted it with durum flour and proofed upside down in a ceramic bowl. It swelled up over the sides of the bowl (doubling in size) in an hour at which point it went into the oven unscored, as there was just no point in poking at it.

It came out nicely - self scoring along the way - and had the subtle flavor I had hoped for, with a light, tender crumb and a crisp crust. All in all, a pleasant flavor variation from the original but still a pugliese at heart.

I know...I just heard about the unreal events in Boston. I'm so saddened and horrified. I just finished reading a fiction book about terrorists and now fiction turned into reality. I pray they find the savages who did this.

in the mean time have a slice of your air bread with some cheese for me!

That is a magnificent looking loaf with a spectacular, open and translucent crumb Varda. If you'd shaped it as a Ciabatta, the formula is close enough that the differences are insignificant, and with a crumb like that who would care anyhow? If ever the term eye candy was an appropriate description for a loaf of bread, this is certainly one of those moments for me. Lovely baking!

Hey Franko, My question is, what is a Pugliese? Presumably a region in Italy? Is the bread well defined? Did I make one? I followed Sylvia, who followed Rose Barenboim - no Italians in sight. So I'm guessing that this is a Jewish-Irish-Jewish pugliese, otherwise known as a Ciabatta. Thanks so much for your comments. -Varda

My Italian is non-existent. So then Pugliese is not a bread definition per se, like Altamura. When I googled it, I got a lot of people whose last name was Pugliese which given what you are saying makes perfect sense.

I was thinking of you in trying to use a starter without its major characteristic of a lot of flavor. My approach was a shortcut, but you can see how frequent feedings could increase yeast population without allowing much by way of bacteria byproducts to accumulate.

Hi Varda,According to Carol Field's 1st edition of " The Italian Baker " Pugliese is made with white (AP) flour, salt, water, and instant yeast with the preferment being 20% of flour and a hydration of 65%. I'm not a fan of Ms Field's formula for Ciabatta which includes milk and olive oil, so I use Hamelman's Ciabatta with Biga formula instead. That formula calls for flour, salt, water, and instant yeast, with the preferment (biga) being 40% of flour and hydration of 73%. Other than the level of preferment there seems to be little difference in formula or procedure however Ms Field describes the pugliese as being quite large, being "baked in huge one or two kilo rounds". As far as I can tell your formula has a hydration of 81% and a preferment of 60% so you're certainly in and around the upper range for either of the two formulas. Going by your results, particularly the crumb, your formula looks well suited to making either a pugliese or ciabattta, and especially if you get a chance to bake them in the high heat of your WFO sometime. I'll be looking forward to that bake if/when you post it.

Franko, Interesting that there is no durum in Italian Baker formula. Wonder if that's typical. I had calculated my prefermented flour as 17% as I was only counting the seed starter. But of course I did preferment more than that - just not for very long. Thanks so much for the additional info. -Varda

Varda, I wondered if no durum is typical as well so did a very brief search finding 2 recipes, one from the Forno Bravo site and the other from King Arthur neither of which call for durum flour. Not that that means no durum is typical for Pugliese but it does seem that way so far. I'll look around some more and let you know if I find anything interesting. Whatever you do don't change a thing with your formula, it's a keeper!

I'm glad that Nico weighed in with his local knowledge to clarify whether durum flour is used in Pane Pugliese and was unaware that Puglia is the main source of durum wheat in Italy. That being the case it's hard to imagine durum not being an essential component of the bread, but just from what I've seen on the net there does seem to be a number of various interpretations for it. I was able to find a few more recipes (translated from Italian) on the Artisan site, some of which include durum and some that don't, but hopefully they'll be of interest to you.

Now you know why we call you the "Crumby Baker" around here. Just spectaculat - really! Yhis time it's possibly even super duper. My apprentice likes you less now - after I showed her the picture of the crumb and asked 'Why can't you do that?'

I'm pretty sure she would bite you in the ankle if you were here .....and then blame me for it!

I have a new apprentice. When he's not out hunting big game, he gives me a hand in the kitchen. Ha, in my dreams. Instead he nips at me, and pins me in the corner. Oy vey. Thanks for your comments DA and happy baking to you. -Varda

If I had just seen the photo, I'd have guessed it was a txfarmer croissant. WOW, talk about lighter than air. One totally indulgent bread evidencing some very deft dough handling to be sure. Zero fiber, total pleasure. I'll take two. And just in case your question to Franko was legit - Puglia is a region in Italy, and Pugliese (pool-yay-zay) is anything or anyone from there. But I assume you knew that right?

Inasmuch as it tastes at all, given its insubstantial nature, it tastes good. And I agree about the sauce. But if no sauce happens to be available (say perhaps because one has spent all one's kitchen energy baking, and nothing left for cooking) a nice olive oil will do. -Varda

Looks amazing, I would love to try this but I'm a bit afraid of the high hydratation levels. I don't have a mixer and always mix by hand. Is this doable for a dough like this? ("Mixing" high hydra% breads = turning in the bowl).

Jefklak, I think you could do this by hand. Take a big bowl and a big wooden spoon and beat away until the dough gets rubbery. It will still be sticky though. I'm guessing that you should keep the spoon wet. I personally wouldn't try this as I was pitchforking my compost pile the other day and my arm is very upset, but no reason you couldn't. Good luck and thank you for your comments. -Varda

Just added my version of your great formula a few minutes ago. Thanks again for sharing this great bread. I've already eaten half the loaf myself for breakfast and for a marinated skirt steak sandwich with cheese for lunch.

I think I will have to try this one with no yeast at all and see if it comes out the same or different with just the SD levain/poolish.

I'm hoping you'll jump back in on this thread...I'm taking on pugliese and wanted to give your formula a go, but am not understanding your notion for the Poolish/Starter (both ingredients and process - a 2 step build???) . If you could clarify it for me, that would be most appreciated...

Hi. In this case, I started with 65g ripe white starter (the seed) and fed it 45g flour, 40g water and let it ripen for a short time before using. The original starter was 67% hydration, and I increased hydration with the feeding. I wouldn't call this a 2 step build as my starter is fed twice a day. The spreadsheet may be confusing because the leftmost column shows the breakdown into flour and water of the seed starter. Second column is the feeding. Third column is the total of flour and water between the seed and the feeding. Seems intuitively obvious to me, but no one else I guess. In any case, hope that's clear, and good luck with the Pugliese.

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